Research at the subject of Finnish Language
The ultimate goal of linguistic studies is to find out how language works. The researchers of Finnish and other Finno-Ugric languages are especially interested in questions related to the structure of language, interaction, variation, change, and language learning.
How does language work?
Typical research questions include:
- How is language used in different interactive functions?
- How is the lexicon constructed?
- How are spatial and temporal relationships described through language?
- How is language used in different areas or in different situations?
- How does language change?
- How does the speaker’s language proficiency develop?
Research into the structures of language
Language structures can be studied with the help of various data sources, methods and theoretical frameworks. The special strengths of the Department of Finnish and Finno-Ugric Languages are cognitive and interactive linguistics as well as the study of lexicon and names. The Department is the most important producer of digital corpora of Finnish and Finno-Ugric languages. The majority of the corpora have been grammatically annotated. There is a strong tradition of grammatical research at the Department, and it is closely connected to international linguistic research.
Research into linguistic variation and change
Languages and language use are constantly changing. Research may explore the use of a language in a certain time period, focusing on its special characteristics and historical changes. Alternatively, research may be focused on language variation in the present-day language use, or on-going linguistic changes and the mechanisms behind them. Research into linguistic variation and change is based on spoken and written data collected from different time periods.
Research into language learning and teaching
Research into language learning focuses primarily on language learners of different ages. The Department’s special strong point in this research is learning Finnish as a second or foreign language. Both first and second language learning can be approached from the perspective of different phenomena, such as grammatical structure, variation or genre.